Games worth discovering

You’ve got to check out this trippy sci-fi Metroidvania from Hotline Miami’s artist

2K View2024-02-12

Ultros

MetroidvaniaSci-fiActionRoguevaniaAdventureRogueliteSingleplayerExploration

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SHOULD I PLAY ULTROS?

Definitely play it, especially if you like a good adventure with a unique look. Ultros dives into a vast alien world that’s equally strange and enchanting. I got to explore vibrant caverns and alleyways, fight nasty beasts and tendril-flinging monsters, and uncover mysteries about an ancient, demonic being entrapped inside this realm. It’s a singularly great title and my favorite Metroidvania I’ve ever played.

TIME PLAYED

I played Ultros for four hours. I’ve beaten four bosses so far, and I think I’m getting pretty close to the halfway point in the game. I’ve explored around five or six major areas, and I’m currently trying to find and beat the fifth boss.

WHAT’S AWESOME ABOUT ULTROS?

• A strange adventure. In a genre so overstuffed that it can feel like everything’s been done before, Ultros is the rare specimen that introduces a totally new and refreshing take on things. This weird, wildly fun game tackles a lot of complex and peculiar topics, including emotions, mental health, aliens, and bacteria. All of that depth is nestled under the playfulness of its even weirder design. I was blown away by every moment spent exploring this alien world, and it certainly deserves your attention.

• Killing aliens. Slashing through ugly aliens, whacking them into other monsters, and seeing them explode and splatter across the floor was invigorating. Combat in Ultros is smooth and dynamic, with actions seamlessly transitioning from one swing of a sword to another to create an adrenaline-packed experience. The combat is also boosted by the great variety of monsters and bosses in the game, which forced me to learn and adapt to many different attack patterns and abilities.

• Exploring an alien labyrinth. The world of Ultros is freakin’ massive! Even four hours in, I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface of what’s available here. Sometimes I would open my map and wonder if there will ever be an end to the parade of rooms, corridors, and hidden areas.

• Planting seeds. By planting seeds across different parts of Ultros’s world, I was able to create changes and open up new paths for exploration when I would start back at the beginning. Time may reset with each story milestone, but the plant life in this game play by their own rules and would grow even across time loops. Those seeds I planted would grow into platforms for me to jump on or vines I could swing on to get to different places. It’s an ingenious mechanic for introducing new environments into the game that really made me feel like part of my goal was taking care of and rehabilitating this strange world.

• Psychedelic visuals. The visual design of Ultros was done by El Huervo (aka Niklas Åkerblad), the Swedish artist who you may recognize from his work on the Hotline Miami games. That pedigree has paid off, as I’ve never seen visuals quite as vibrant and psychedelic as this. Each environment has its own style and feel, and none of the places I’ve explored look the same as anything else in the game. In fact, most of it doesn’t look like anything recognizable at all; it is one of those rare instances where a game set on an alien world actually feels alien.

WHAT SUCKS ABOUT ULTROS?

• It’s not the typical Metroidvania. This is more of a warning than anything else. If you go into Ultros expecting the usual Metroidvania experience, you might be surprised or even disappointed. Unlike other Metroidvanias where the character progression follows a linear path and you’re always learning new skills and getting stronger, Ultros takes a less direct route. After certain story milestones, the game resets in a time loop; when I hit these moments, I had to begin again from the beginning, including re-exploring territory I’d already been over, unlocking skills I’d already had, and even farming the same resources over again. These resets are a necessary part of the game’s narrative, but it took me a while to understand why they were needed.

The first time that Ultros forced me to start back at the beginning, I was pissed. I was maybe only an hour or so into the game, but I felt like all of my effort up to this point had been wasted. But after two or three resets, I started to comprehend the reason for this time loop mechanic.

Ultros is a game about change and time; it starts off very slowly, with the player not knowing much about anything, but it picks up momentum as the story unfolds. I soon realized that every time my progress was reset, the world changed, offering me new ways to explore and make progress. Later, I discovered items that allowed me to retain some progress by permanently learning skills. These weren’t common, so I had to choose which permanent upgrades I kept carefully, but I was always pushing forward. All this is to say that I didn’t get the same Metroidvania experience that I expected from Ultros, but as I stuck with it, my patience and curiosity were rewarded.